The Knave of Diamonds eBook

He paused and seemed to listen, then very quietly
released her hand. A curious expression flickered
across his face as he did so, and a little chill went
through her. It was like the closing of the furnace
door.

“I am going,” he said. “But
I shall come back—­I shall come back.”
His smile, sudden and magnetic, gleamed for an instant
and was gone.

“Do you remember the missing heart?” he
said “There are some things that I never forget.”

And so, without farewell, he turned and left her,
moving swiftly and easily over the grass. She
heard the jingle of his spurs, but no sound of any
footfall as he went.

CHAPTER IV

THE FATAL STREAK

“My lady!”

Anne looked up with a start. She had been sitting
with closed eyes under the lilac tree.

Dimsdale, discreet and deferential as ever, stood
before her.

“Mr. Lucas Errol is here,” he told her,
“with another gentleman. I knew your ladyship
would wish to be at home to him.”

But she did not instantly follow Dimsdale. She
stood instead quite motionless, with her face to the
sky, breathing deeply.

When she turned at length she had recovered all her
customary serenity. With the quiet dignity peculiar
to her, she passed up the garden path, leaving the
thrush still singing, singing, singing, behind her.

She found her visitors in the drawing-room, which
she entered by the open window. Lucas greeted
her with his quiet smile and introduced Capper—­“a
very great friend of mine, and incidentally the finest
doctor in the U.S.A.”

She shook hands with the great man, feeling the small
green eyes running over her, and conscious that she
blushed under their scrutiny. She wondered why,
with a vague feeling of resentment. She also wondered
what had moved Lucas to bring him.

As she sat at the tea-table and dispensed hospitality
to her guests it was Lucas who kept the conversation
going. She thought he seemed in wonderful spirits
despite the heavy droop of his eyelids.

Capper sat in almost unbroken silence, studying his
hostess so perpetually that Anne’s nerves began
to creak at last under the strain.

Quite suddenly at length he set down his cup.
“Lady Carfax,” he said abruptly, “I’m
told you have a herb garden, and I’m just mad
on herbs. Will you take me to see it while Lucas
enjoys a much-needed and well-earned rest?”

Anne glanced up in surprise. They were almost
the first words he had spoken. Capper was already
upon his feet. He stood impatiently cracking
his fingers one by one.

She rose. “Of course I will do so with
pleasure if Mr. Errol doesn’t mind.”

“Certainly not, Lady Carfax,” smiled Lucas.
“I am extremely comfortable. Pray give
him what he wants. It is the only way to pacify
him.”